Delray Beach Announces First Annual Wine and Seafood Festival

Festival, art walks, and outdoor fairs are a hallmark of the fall and winter months in South Florida and perhaps no city is more emblematic of this trend than Delray Beach. The city hosts so many festivals from October through May that one might think that Delray is Seminole for "Land of Many Fests."

The latest fest to spring to life is the Delray Beach Wine and Seafood Festival happening November 10 and 11. They're already referring to it as the "first annual" so we know the city intends for this to be a yearly affair.

This festival does differ slightly from some of the other extremely popular Delray 'dos like Garlic Fest.

First, the Wine and Seafood Festival will not be in the usual stretch of Atlantic Avenue that residents and visitors have come to expect.

"We hold a lot of events in the main business district, but some of the merchants further east want to highlight some of the businesses in that area," says Nancy Stewart-Franczak, Event Director for Festival Management Group, which was hired by the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce to organize the event.

Fittingly, the seafood-related fest will be closer to the ocean, on Atlantic Avenue from the Intracostal to A1A. Within that area, the restrictions on open carrying of alcoholic beverages will be temporarily lifted so that guests are free to walk around with their wine. There will also be two wine gardens to relax in and there will be live music all weekend.

The event itself will be free. Those who attend will pay for individual drinks and dishes and they try them. There will be a series of wine and food pairings classes in the Wine Seminar tent, each one hosted by a noted Delray Beach restaurant; Caffe Luna Rosa at noon, 50 Ocean and Boston's on the Beach at 2 p.m., and Candyfish Gourmet Sushi at 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sundy House at noon, Carefree Catering at 2 p.m., and La Cigale at 4 p.m. on Sunday. Each class is $20 and passes can be purchased at delraybeach.com.

A Weekend Wino Passcan be purchased for $100 and includes two wine glasses, two lanyards, and unlimited wine tasting for one day for two people. The festival takes place from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday.

"And of course," says Stewart-Franczak, "Monday is holiday so it won't matter if they have fun on Sunday."

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Rebecca McBane is the arts and culture/food editor for New Times Broward-Palm Beach. She began her journalism career at the Sun Sentinel's community newspaper offshoot, Forum Publishing Group, where she worked as the editorial assistant and wrote monthly features as well as the weekly library and literature column, "Shelf Life." After a brief stint bumming around London's East End (for no conceivable reason, according to her poor mother), she returned to real life and South Florida to start at New Times as the editorial assistant in 2009. A native Floridian, Rebecca avoids the sun and beach at all costs and can most often be found in a well-air-conditioned space with the glow of a laptop on her face.